by Linda Barnett

Created on: September 19, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Urban Gold Digging (dumpster diving) does not require scuba gear or snorkel. It requires no classes or schedule and has unlimited, free resources.

Imagination and creativity are the motivation and the rewards are endless.

COMMERCIAL digging finds the treasures that are not perfect. The bottle of laundry detergent that has a dent in the plastic, the can that has a ripped label and the box that is creased.

Advertised specials that give you $500 trade-ins for that old HD TV lure you in but find your old HD out back with the garbage. It was merely to get your business, you really think they wanted it? So tell me - did your trade-in work? It is in the same condition but sitting out in back of the store.

"If you touch a product twice, you lose money." This is the slogan of most stores and it's application is such: If one bottle of olive oil breaks in a case of 12, the case is thrown away. The CASE is considered trash not the one bottle.

Discontinued or on-sale products must be taken of shelves to give room for new merchandise. Since these sales were the store's last try, you can properly guess where they wind up.

RESIDENTIAL finds you in the middle of roommates kicked out due to lack of payment, renters who move but can't take everything and folks who have just decided they don't like their wardrobe or have decided they want a new look' in their house.

People kicking out roommates normally don't go through the property they don't want to even think about them. Landlords push everything out because they are focused on new tenants not on figuring out how to liquidate items. People who throw out wardrobes could care less about the clothes when they were fat' and antiques are just dust collectors from another era they care nothing about.

So, next time you marvel when you see an SUV or Lexus parked beside a dumpster, don't snub your nose. That Lexus might have been purchased through this unsavory "hobby"!

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